USD Import Invoice for U.S. Tech From Havana
Cuba’s private businesses want U.S. laptops, servers, routers, software, and solar gear. Paying the U.S. seller’s invoice in dollars was the bottleneck.
Tim Parsa · Co-Founder & CCO, QvaPay · 10 July 2026 · 4 min read Subscribe
Cuba’s private businesses run on technology they can’t buy at home: laptops, servers, routers, point-of-sale terminals, inverters, and the software that runs them. The best of it is American. The problem was never wanting it. It was paying a U.S. seller’s invoice from Havana.
A software studio in Santa Clara needs six laptops, a server, and a rack of networking gear. It pays the Miami reseller from its QvaPay balance against the invoice and export documents. The order ships from Florida, and the studio takes on two more clients the month it arrives.
Illustrative example; not customers.
The goods move under the Export Administration Regulations, and the payment is incident to an authorized export under 31 CFR § 515.533. Each payment is released only against the invoice and the export file.
At Uphold we learned businesses adopt new money when it pays the vendors they already want. In Cuba, the vendors they want are American. A dollar account that pays a U.S. invoice is the shortest bridge between Cuban talent and U.S. technology.
Every paid invoice puts U.S. technology in the hands of a Cuban founder. That’s how a startup nation gets built: one invoice at a time, under U.S. law.
A business account and a bank payment to a U.S. seller are how U.S. technology reaches Cuba’s private sector, legally.
| Flow | How we grow it | U.S. tech meets Cuban talent |
|---|---|---|
| Assisted vendor payments QvaPay's reading of §515.533/§515.421 · pending with OFAC | SkyMind will pay U.S. exporters by wire from QvaPay's U.S. bank; a Florida logistics hub shortens delivery. | U.S. exporters sell solar panels, tools, and machines to Cuban private businesses. |
| MIPYME business accounts QvaPay's position · pending with OFAC (Case CU-2025-1426925-1) | MIPYME accounts marketed by use case, supported from our Miami HQ; financing for Cuban buyers once OFAC clarifies it. | Cuban entrepreneurs buy U.S. equipment and software and run their companies in dollars. |
The potential. Remittances into Cuba run an estimated $1.1–2B a year (2024; estimates vary). At the Dominican Republic’s rate per person, Cuba would receive about $9.8B, five to nine times today. That is the market QvaPay is built to serve.
| Market | Cuba today | Cuba at the Dominican Republic’s rate per person |
|---|---|---|
| Remittances received | $1.1–2B 2024 est., estimates vary | $9.8B DR total $11.9B (2025) |
A scenario, not a forecast. The Dominican Republic received $11.9B in remittances in 2025 across 11.4 million people, about $1,040 a person; at that rate Cuba’s 9.43 million people would receive about $9.8B a year, five to nine times today. Method and sources.
The private sector is close to a third of Cuban jobs, about 15% of GDP, and close to 60% of retail, and imported more than $2 billion in 2025. Their roadmap includes direct private imports and exports. On cubanew.com ↗
Sources
- eCFR, 31 CFR § 515.533 ↗
- eCFR, 15 CFR § 740.21 ↗
- U.S. Department of State, Cuba Restricted List ↗
- EFE/Swissinfo, private SMEs approved in Cuba since 2021 exceed 11,000 ↗
- Directorio Cubano, private sector overtakes the state in retail sales ↗
- QvaPay, AML/BSA program and transparency page ↗
- Periódico Cubano, Cuba’s private sector imported nearly $1.2 billion in the first half of 2025 ↗
If this was useful, pass it to someone building in Cuba.